ON Monday, a Senate panel and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources ‘emphasised’ the implementation of safety rules for oil tankers plying roads across the country. The rules governing the movement of hazardous goods by road, according to Ogra, were notified back in 2009. But it took the loss of over 200 lives in a blaze that erupted after an overturned oil tanker burst into flames near Ahmedpur Sharqia last month to remind parliamentarians and the government agencies concerned of their existence and the need for their implementation. It is typical of our bureaucracy and state institutions to spring into ‘action’ only when a disaster of this scale strikes — only to return quickly to business as usual.

No one has so far tried to investigate what prevented the enforcement of rules during the last eight years. No one has questioned why no mechanism was developed to force the rich oil-marketing companies to follow safety standards and switch to compliant tankers for transportation of their oil as is done in other countries. Or why no road map was given to transporters to gradually replace their existing vehicles with a new fleet in line with the safety guidelines prescribed in the Agreement for International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Roads. All this needs to be probed and discussed for future reference and long-term planning to prevent similar tragedies. Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s statement that “some safety rules for the tankers might be too stringent to be followed in the country’s environment” is nothing but an attempt to deflect public criticism of the failure of the government and oil firms to fulfil their responsibilities in the enforcement of standards. If the government had started implementing the safety standards and rules immediately after notifying them, it might have fine-tuned them by now and the people killed in the tanker fire might have been alive today. After all, what use are laws, rules and standards if they are not enforced?

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2017